definable map arxivmath.ag0605517 v1 18 may 2006.pdfVIP

ON THE NUMBER OF HOMOTOPY TYPES OF FIBRES OF A DEFINABLE MAP 6 0 SAUGATA BASU AND NICOLAI VOROBJOV 0 2 Abstract. In this paper we prove a single exponential upper bound on the y number of possible homotopy types of the fibres of a Pfaffian map, in terms a of the format of its graph. In particular we show that if a semialgebraic set M S ⊂ Rm+n , where R is a real closed field, is defined by a Boolean formula with s polynomials of degrees less than d, and π : Rm+n → Rn is the projection 8 on a subspace, then the number of different homotopy types of fibres of π does 1 not exceed (smnd)O(nm) . As applications of our main results we prove single exponential bounds on the number of homotopy types of semialgebraic sets 1 defined by fewnomials, and by polynomials with bounded additive complexity. v We also prove single exponential upper bounds on the radii of balls guaran teeing local contractibility for semialgebraic sets defined by polynomials with 7 integer coefficients. 1 5 5 0 6 1. Introduction 0 Let S ⊂ Rk be a set definable in an o-minimal structure over the reals (see [13]), / G and πS : S → Rn be a definable map. For example, S can be a semi-algebraic or A a restricted sub-Pfaffian [17] set. For the purpose of this paper, we will assume .